Home Care Colleagues,
I'm so excited about the upcoming 2-day workshop "Optimizing Quality, Compliance and Capacity in Medicare Home Health". I'm posting my thoughts on our new "Iowa Home Care Exchange" blog so that I can share my personal thoughts about this workshop, why it's so important to attend and what you can expect to take away and apply right away in your agency. And, I encourage you to ask questions of me and our speaker Karen Vance so that we can answer your questions before you miss this important educational event. Note: You can send questions by clicking on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this article.
I know the good folks at BKD, Karen Vance and Mark Sharp, have worked hard to understand why we in Iowa have the lowest number of medicare users. As someone in the trenches, just like you, I'm especially excited to hear what they have to say and how we can grow the Medicare numbers in Iowa. It makes me sad to think we have so many people who could benefit from home care that just aren't receiving it. My company has pushed for medicare growth for a long time.
Besides helping all those medicare recipients, who deserve and have paid for their medicare home care benefit, the benefits for Medicare Growth may increase the bottom line for each one of our offices financially. This is so important as we see and hear about cuts to other government run programs and cuts in private sector insurance. It's never good to put all the eggs in one basket. Iowa has been known to be a state heavy in medicaid. Maybe some of these patients qualify for the medicare benefit. This would ease the burden of the state's medicaid program as well. Please plan join me, and many other homecare managers, to learn about potential growth opportunities for 09 and beyond. Plus, the IAHC Education committee was generous enough to extend the early registration discount until Friday, July 10th. I hope to see you on July 14th & 15th! Chris Grundmeyer Girling Health Care - Oelwein

